Where Loyalties Remain
by CaraLestrange
Summary: Written to fit chapter by chapter with the books. Alexia Rosier's father was killed against aurors during the First Wizarding War, and she was left to be handed around the Death Eaters to be taken care of. Over the years, she grows up with the Malfoys, knowing that her father died for what he believed in. She knows where her loyalties remain.
1. 1: A Change in the Wind

It was the 31st October, 1981. On the dark floorboards of Bellatrix Lestrange's home, a small child walked around in circles surprisingly steadily on her feet for her age. Although Bella said she despised children, she surprised everyone, herself most of all, when she tolerated this one. It was quiet, entertained itself and didn't need much attending to except when it was hungry, but she normally left feeding to whoever was looking after it next. If Evan hadn't gone and got himself killed by aurors, she wouldn't even have the child here. At least he left one of the greatest aurors with a new feature to his nose.

She did have to admit that this child was fairly talented. She'd picked up simple things like walking quite quickly, and she was always curious, working things out for herself and only using language when she absolutely needed to. When she did speak, her voice was that of a child quite beyond her age – maybe 5 years older. She figured that was from being constantly in the care of various Death Eaters who didn't really care for the child being around, so she heard a lot. She also didn't seem to care for toys or anything else to distract her – she was quite content with her own company. It reminded Bella of herself, especially with the child's thick, wavy, black hair. The child was already much more tanned than her though, although she guessed that was a Rosier trait. Most importantly, the child didn't cry or whine.

Rodolphus didn't really see why they should have to look after the child at all. After all, they were both very busy with the Dark Lord, and had played a large part in carrying out his dirty work. Not that Bellatrix really minded going after the Order of the Phoenix members. It was fun really, picking them off like little flies, their morals keeping them from using the curses she preferred to just get the job done. Well, not until she'd toyed with them a little first, of course. It was quite sweet, the way they panicked in the end, realising that they'd taken one wrong step.

Suddenly, her left forearm burned. But it wasn't like when the Dark Lord called her - it was excruciating. Worse than the one time her dear cousin Sirius got away and the Dark Lord cast the Cruciatus curse for hours.

She didn't know how long it had been, but it suddenly stopped. Pulling back her sleeve, the intricate snake design on her arm was rapidly fading to more of a grey, although still outlined in pink from the pain. Looking up, the child was staring at her intently, as if trying to make sense of what had just happened. It was as if she found the dark mark interesting and was examining it intently. Snapping back to reality of what had just happened, Bella pulled her sleeve down quickly and stood.

Rodolphus walked into the room just as Lucius came through the fireplace, black cloak surrounding him ominously.

"He's gone." said Lucius, expressionless.

"And what of the Potters? Did Wormtail give the Dark Lord away? I always hated that excuse for a human being, as soon as he gave the information of their whereabouts." Bellatrix sneered. She didn't trust him; he was weak, wasn't sure of himself, and didn't seem to show any loyalty to anybody.

"We don't know. Maybe the order were involved, but we don't know what to do now. I'd run while you can, before you get sent to Azkaban." Lucius said, and she saw fear in his eyes like she hadn't seen in years. He was a coward, she knew that deep down, but even his loyalty was wavering so quickly. She looked across to Rodolphus.

"We have some business to... attend to. We need to go and get Barty and Rabastan. Take the child will you, Lucius?" She said, her and Rodolphus apparating away before Lucius could even protest. He looked down at the small girl, who seemed to be confused by his appearance. He picked her up and she began to grab at his hair. He sighed. Draco tried to do it too, and it got boring after a while. He quickly went through the floo, stepping out at Malfoy Manor.

Immediately, Narcissa came into the room, taking the child from him as he stepped through the fireplace.

"What did Bella say?" she asked, obviously stressed. She'd experienced her sister's reckless nature many times before, and knew of her fanatical obsession with the Dark Lord. She didn't take the mark herself, but her sister had jumped at the chance, and Narcissa had been left to be married into the ranks instead.

"Her and Rodolphus have gone to get Barty and Rabastan. She told me to bring Alexia back. I assume she's trying to find out about the Dark Lord. I told her to run, but I knew it wouldn't be any use on her." Lucius replied, looking exhausted and run down. He knew that Bellatrix was stupid to be doing this now - with the Dark Lord gone, the Order would gain a lot of confidence. His best bet for his wife and son was to use his position in the Ministry to throw them off and never realise that his loyalty hadn't been with them the whole time.

Narcissa looked saddened, but not surprised in the slightest. She knew that if the Dark Lord was gone, then her son's future would look a lot brighter than it did currently. She turned to the girl in her arms, a year older than him. She was looking at Narcissa's earrings, examining the pattern of the expensive crystals in them. Back when her and Lucius had married, those were his first present to her after. It was typical for pureblood women to be impressed by material gifts like that, she knew, but they were very pretty.

All she could think to do for the child right now was to find somewhere for her to sleep. It was getting late and Narcissa was tired of worrying, so she went up to her son's room. A small head with a tiny amount of platinum blond hair was tucked into the blankets of the crib, sheltered from the rapidly cooling October air. She placed Alexia next to him in the crib for now where she would be safe. As she turned to the door to wait for news on her sister, she saw small hands take hold of the blankets and tug them towards Alexia, slightly uncovering Draco. He shifted slightly but didn't wake, and the girl soon got comfortable and fell asleep quickly, unaware of the great changes that just occurred to her life. Narcissa left the room into the awaiting arms of Lucius, both of them coming to terms with what the night meant for them.


	2. 2: The Comfort of Home

Alexia had reached the end of her first year of Hogwarts. She felt that she'd done well in all of her exams, although there had been some people she really couldn't believe were actually that incapable. Belby had managed to explode his cure for boils by not taking his cauldron off the fire before adding his porcupine quills, melting through the entirety of his pewter cauldron and getting covered in the boiling hot, incomplete potion, giving himself boils rather than curing them. Snape had been far from impressed, taking house points even during an exam. He obviously didn't show as much talent as others in his family.

Bell made a snuffbox with a tail and whiskers in the Transfiguration exam which still squeaked and shuffled along the desk in front of her, Chang couldn't keep her eyes off any of the boys in any of the exams and she was almost caught trying to help Edgecombe. Alexia really didn't understand the obsession with any of the boys in their year. They were mostly just incredibly irritating and didn't pay attention in lessons nearly as much as they should, not to mention how scrawny they were even with the amount that she saw them eat in the great hall at dinner.

She also didn't understand how some people could be so stupid in their exams. The first year content wasn't remotely hard - you just had to actually study it and remember what you had to do. Belby was a prime example of not reading a book. The sorting hat must have made a mistake by putting him in Ravenclaw. The exams had been the last straw with the stupidity she had witnessed for one Hogwarts school year, and she was very glad to be on the Hogwarts Express to Kings' Cross, where Lucius and Narcissa would meet her.

She sat in a compartment next to Sarah Yaxley. Alexia didn't see Sarah as being particularly bright and making a future for herself, but she figured that she'd be alright, as her pureblood etiquette was usually flawless, so she'd make a very good wife to a wealthy pureblood man. Lucius thought that Sarah was the right kind of young lady for Alexia to get to know, as she was in good circles and wouldn't knock down any of Alexia's perfect manners that she'd picked up over the years. However great her manners were, however, Sarah's voice got irritating after a while and it was necessary to tune out and listen to somebody else, so she made sure to be in a compartment with other people.

Second years Pucey and Warrington were acceptable in Alexia's eyes, but she wasn't sure she'd consider them to be friends to her. Pucey continuously boasted about his position of chaser on the Slytherin quidditch team and still winning the Quidditch Cup even though he was only in his second year, first year on the team. Warrington looked incredibly uncomfortable. Alexia remembered watching him fumble with the quaffle at tryouts at the beginning of the year, and he was still upset that Pucey had filled the spot on the team rather than him. The only reason Alexia would have put Warrington over Pucey, however, is if she wanted someone to be able to sit on the other team and crush them by weight, although she'd never mention it to his face. She really did wish that Pucey would shut up about the Quidditch Cup to them now though - if he wanted to boast, he was better off going down the train and informing the other houses for the millionth time since they won their last match against Ravenclaw.

That left her to sit and keep to herself rather than listen to the rest of her housemates continue on and on with their meaningless conversations. She took her wand out of the pocket of her robes and began to twist it around between her fingers. 11" long, dogwood and rougarou hair core, it was a fairly unique wand, passed down through her family but which spoke to her in a different way to any other wands she had tried before. She got on very well with her wand - it needed entertainment with exciting spells, but she was more than willing to provide, learning new spells whenever she could. Not all of them were useful, but it was nice to be able to show her capability to those who were, in her opinion, utterly incapable.

Tuning back into the conversation, Sarah was trying to pry information out of Pucey about some of the older boys on the quidditch team. She was always after information, as were a lot of pureblood women. It was probably for her future benefit, finding out which ones were purebloods and which had money. That didn't particularly matter to Alexia, however – the Malfoys were very generous to her, letting her have what she asked, although it was never really much. She found that Draco liked to whine until he got what he wanted, but she found being polite much more effective. Narcissa thought she was a wonderful young lady, and she was determined to find her a suitable match when the time came if she hadn't found one herself.

Soon it was time to leave the train as the scarlet engine drew into platform 9 3/4. She spotted the platinum blond hair of Lucius and Draco, accompanied by the beautiful robes of Narcissa. Lucius approached her to levitate her belongings from the train, Narcissa beckoning her. As she approached, she heard Draco droning on to his mother about how he was going to be on that train next year. Alexia rolled her eyes at his usual antics, always trying to be better than everybody else.

"Alexia, you look more and more beautiful each time you come back off that train." Narcissa exclaimed with as much adoration as she would allow. It was obvious to anybody that knew her that Narcissa had wished for a daughter, but Lucius had been happy enough once he had an heir to the Malfoy name. Alexia filled that void in her heart, and her growing beauty brought Narcissa joy. Although, really, Alexia didn't blame her at all with the way Draco was starting to positively grease his hair back on his head. He said that it made him look 'proper', but personally, Alexia thought it looked disgusting.

Lucius sent her belongings to her room in the Manor, and the four of them apparated away, Lucius taking Draco and Narcissa taking Alexia. They walked down the path past the peacocks and through the grand front doors. Immediately, Alexia disappeared up to her room. It was quite plain as far as the standards of a child's room went. There were no posters or drawings on the walls, bare apart from the intricate design of the wallpaper with the dark wood panelling. Laying back on the four poster bed, she slightly sunk down into the soft mattress and sighed. She had the whole summer ahead of her, and she expected she'd spend the summer here reading a lot as usual. With Lucius and Narcissa in the house, there was nothing to stop her practising magic, as the Ministry would just put it down to them using magic despite her being underage. She figured that there were a lot of books in Lucius' office that she hadn't even looked at before, so she'd ask him about them for something to learn over the summer other than just second year work in advance.

But first, she had to go and boast to Draco all about the fun year at Hogwarts she'd had while he was stuck doing lessons at home.

~#~#~#~

Thank you to everyone who's reviewed so far! I think I've replied to them all, but I'm sorry if I haven't! Right now I'm on summer break until I go to uni at the end of September, so updates might be rather randomly timed. I'm not particularly talented at writing, but I'm enjoying writing this story, so we'll see how it goes.


	3. 3: Who Am I?

It got to the end of July, and Hogwarts letters arrived for both Alexia and Draco. Alexia rolled her eyes once more at Draco's overexaggerated excitement and boasting that he got in when they all knew that he would've got in anyway – he was a wizard, so it couldn't be avoided. As annoying as he could be, she didn't get annoyed with Draco. He was a Malfoy, after all, and he was better than a lot of other people in blood status and family name, so she didn't see any harm in him showing it. She did know, however, that it wouldn't be taken to very well unless he was a Slytherin at Hogwarts, but with his lineage it would be unheard of for him to be put anywhere else.

Alexia's only new books she needed for this year were The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk and The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble. She figured that meant that they'd have another Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher this year. It was almost comical how they got a new one every year. Maybe it was just the nature of the subject. Draco needed all of his books, as well as his scales and cauldron, so their trip to Diagon Alley would be much more aimed at him. He'd need robes, too, she figured, so maybe she'd look for some nicer robes for herself while they were there.

When Lucius and Narcissa discussed the shopping trip, they decided that it would be better to go in a few days, when there wouldn't be quite as many families doing their school supplies shopping. As there would be two of them this year (and Draco would be constantly in contact with his father, although they'd never admit that was the reason), they also decided that they should buy an owl between them for delivering letters. The Hogwarts school owls were incredibly slow, Alexia had discovered during the year, so they'd get them a decent owl recommended for its delivery speed.

Until the shopping trip, Alexia sat in her room, reading the books that Lucius would allow her to borrow from his library and learning some new magic from them. There were many books she'd seen on his shelves that she longed to read, but Lucius would never let her near them. "Maybe when you're a little older," he'd say. She had considered sneaking in and borrowing them, but Draco was constantly on the lookout for anything she did wrong to tell his father. He'd always been a daddy's boy, but his growing excitement over going to Hogwarts had him constantly being told to stick to proper Malfoy ways and remember proper etiquette. Maybe she'd be able to get him on her side if this carried on.

His room was across the hallway from hers in the left wing of Malfoy Manor. Generally, they kept to themselves, only really conversing on the way down to dinner. She had distant memories of the luxuriously patterned four poster bed with green and silver hangings in his room from when she was younger. It was a stark contrast to her room, with mostly off-white bed sheets. The Malfoys' had given her a lot of freedom with the design of her room as she grew, and she found herself choosing more neutral, boring colours the older she got. She thought that the contrast in her and Draco's rooms mirrored the difference in their personalities quite well.

Alexia had known that she wasn't Lucius and Narcissa's child for as long as she could remember. Preferring to keep to herself mostly, Alexia didn't like to ask questions if it was obvious that the person didn't really want to answer them. She didn't remember her father, but she knew that he had died when she was very young. Who her mother was had never been mentioned. She could only remember living with the Malfoys for her whole life. However, over the course of the school year, she'd had some mouthy Gryffindor students insult her father. Although she hadn't known him, she knew that he died in tragic circumstances fighting for what he believed in during a war, so she just ignored those Gryffindors, as she knew that they were just trying to provoke her into doing something stupid in retaliation as they did with all Slytherins. It was just house rivalry.

She picked up her copy of _Protection Charm Your Mind: A Practical Guide to Counter Legilimensy_ that Lucius had allowed her to borrow, laid back on her bed and got to reading.

~#~#~

Hello again! Short chapter I know, but welcome back to this story after a year for me! I kind of forgot it existed, but now I'm back :). This is a little bit of a filler chapter just to get going again and to get in line with the timeline of Philosopher's Stone.


	4. 4: Mother?

Before they went to Diagon Alley, Narcissa said that she needed to speak to Alexia and Draco, as they may hear things that weren't very "nice" said to them in public. After Alexia had mentioned in casual conversation about the Gryffindors bothering her during the year, Narcissa was shocked, and promptly apologised for not preparing Alexia for this. She had thought that first years wouldn't know what she was about to tell them, so they wouldn't have been bothered.

Sat at the dining table, Lucius retiring to his study to deal with some paperwork for the Ministry, Narcissa sat on one side and Alexia and Draco next to each other on the other, Alexia finally learned who she really was.

"When you and Draco were still very young, there was a great wizard with a different view of the world to many other people," Narcissa began. Alexia was very interested – History of Magic had only covered ancient goblin wars, not anything recent.

"What I'm about to tell you both must not be repeated outside of this room. Your father fought for this wizard, Alexia. He shared this view of the world, and he was a respected follower."

Alexia hadn't expected this. She thought her father had just been one of many who was insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

"What was this view of the world, Narcissa?" Alexia asked, being as inquisitive and searching for information as always. She'd come top of her year, after all.

Narcissa paused for a moment. She didn't know how to explain this without the child's later actions leading to suspicion about the family's loyalties these days.

"He believed that magical blood must be valued. You already understand how we are purebloods. He thought that purebloods were the most important wizards of all and that we could not lose the pure magical blood in our families. Evan fought for magic staying pure," Narcissa said slowly and deliberately, choosing her words very carefully.

To Alexia, this made sense. She had seen the muggleborns come into school in first year, not understanding how magic worked and falling behind in classes. They should've just read the books early as she had, but they'd obviously just been lazy about it. Magic had to be used carefully, not by some students who just didn't have a care for it and therefore didn't deserve it.

"Soon after your father died, the powerful wizard fell," Narcissa continued. "He went missing, and he hasn't been seen since. They think that a child named Harry Potter caused him to disappear."

"I've heard of him," said Alexia, "Isn't he coming to Hogwarts next year? Lots of people seemed very excited about him, but I just thought he must be someone a lot of people knew from when they were younger. I would've thought he was a popular pureblood apart from us never having met him."

"The Potters are all dead except for this boy. However, his father married a muggleborn, so the child ended up with muggles when his parents died," Narcissa said, trying to keep a straight face, although she still had a slight frown.

"I'm going to be friends with him," said Draco, breaking his rare silence, "He's going to be in my year, isn't he? I'll meet him first, and he can be my friend. If he's a decent pureblood, he'll surely be put in Slytherin."

Alexia rolled her eyes. Draco always had to try and one-up her.

"If he's been with muggles all the time he won't even know how to deal with magic, Draco. Do you really want to be friends with somebody who could hex your hair off at any moment?" she asked.

As expected, Draco suddenly looked worried for his greased-back hair, but it seemed to pass after a minute.

"If he's somebody worth knowing, a Malfoy has to know him, Rosier," Draco smirked.

Draco only called her a Rosier when he was trying to annoy her. He used to succeed, but now she knew the truth about her father, she thought she quite liked the name.

"If Evan Rosier was my father, who was my mother?" Alexia asked. There had never been any mention of her mother, but there was still some hope that she might be alive.

"Evan never said who your mother was. After you were born, your mother decided that Evan must have the responsibility of you, as she was very busy and she wanted you to have a proper pureblood upbringing," Narcissa said warily.

"So I'm definitely a pureblood?" Alexia asked, worrying. She had led her whole life believing so, and she didn't want to discover that she was just a half-blood in front of Draco. Narcissa seemed to let out a breath of relief that there were no further questions about the mother herself.

"Evan – your father – reassured Bella that your mother was a pureblood. They were very good friends, and Bella would take care of you when Evan couldn't. We took care of you when neither of them could, which happened quite a lot," Narcissa rushed out. If the child had any doubts about her blood, she didn't know how she would reassure her of it.

Alexia breathed out a sigh of relief, now curious to ask questions uncharacteristically, "What happened to Bella? Why don't I know her?"

"Aunt Bella has been wrongly imprisoned in Azkaban, the wizarding prison. They accused her of torturing people to find out what happened to the Dark Lord – the powerful wizard - which she would never be able to do," Narcissa said, not quite making eye contact. Alexia knew it was hard to talk about those lost, so she didn't want to pry any further.

Knowing that the discussion was over as his mother looked uncomfortable, Draco hopped down from his chair at the table. He pulled out Alexia's chair, as customary for any well brought up wizard, waited for her to get down from the chair too and pushed it back in as quietly as possible, leaving his mother with her thoughts.

Catching up to Alexia on the staircase up to their floor of the left wing, Draco put a hand on Alexia's shoulder. She turned around quickly, not expecting him to have followed her.

"I'm sorry about your father, Alexia," Draco said, "but at least we know that he died for a good cause." He looked as sad as his mother had about Aunt Bella.

Alexia nodded at him slightly in acknowledgment before continuing up to her room. She hadn't ever known this Evan Rosier, she just had his name. She was glad that she knew who he was and what he had done now, but it didn't sound like he'd ever done much for her, so why should she be sad about him? All the conversation had done was make her question even more who her mother was.


	5. 5: New Friends

The next day, accompanied by Lucius and Narcissa, Alexia and Draco headed off to Diagon Alley. They took the floo to the back room of the Leaky Cauldron from the sitting room of the manor and were quickly recognised by many of the patrons of the pub, receiving nods as they walked past. However, there was one man who approached them. He had a large turban wrapped around his head and seemed nervous.

"H-hello," said the pale man with a stammer, "You m-m-must be D-D-Draco M-Malfoy?"

Draco puffed out his chest proudly at being recognised first, "That I am. How do you do?"

Even though he had extended his hand, the man pretended not to notice.

"I'm P-P-Professor Quirrell," he managed to get out. "I'll b-be t-t-teaching you t-this year."

Not wanting to make the man struggle any longer, Lucius gave a stern nod to Professor Quirrell and they all continued on their way out the back door of the Leaky Cauldron. Lucius tapped the correct brick in the wall with the top of his silver cane and they walked through into the still-busy alley.

Draco was beside himself, waving his list of supplies in the air and continuously asking his mother where they would be going next, not stopping until his eyes went wide. Alexia followed his line of sight and realised he was looking at the new Nimbus Two Thousand in the window of a shop. She rolled her eyes. She didn't see the point in Quidditch – it just took away time from her studies whenever there was a match and she felt like she should go to support Slytherin house. Draco looked positively shocked and unable to move until his father poked him in the back with his walking stick. It always made Alexia feel a little uneasy when he did that to Draco, yet it never happened to her.

They found themselves in front of Madam Malkin's to get Draco's first school robes. Narcissa headed to look at wands, and Lucius went to buy both of their books. They walked into the shop and headed over to the fitting rooms, where Draco was ushered into a spot next to a boy with oversized clothes, taped, round glasses and very messy short, black hair which covered his forehead.

"Hello," said Draco, "Hogwarts, too?"

"Yes," said the boy, looking surprised that somebody was making conversation with him.

"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said Draco, sounding bored. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."

Alexia rolled her eyes and took a seat in the waiting area. Of course Draco had to try and boast about his family as soon as he met somebody new.

"Have you got your own broom?" Draco continued.

"No," said the other boy. Alexia couldn't help but think that the boy was being impolite with his overly short responses.

"Play Quidditch at all?" Draco continued with his interrogation.

"No," said the boy again. He looked confused, like he didn't even know what Quidditch was. Must be a muggleborn, Alexia thought.

"I do – Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?" Draco drawled on.

"No," said the boy.

"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been – imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

The boy seemed to make some small sound of agreement.

"I say, look at that man!" Draco exclaimed, nodding at the front window. A man twice as tall as anybody else and probably twice as wide too was stood there, grinning at the boy next to Draco and pointing at two large ice creams.

"That's Hagrid," said the boy, looking smug. "He works at Hogwarts."

"Oh," said Draco, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"

"He's the gamekeeper," said the boy, frowning.

"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage – lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."

"I think he's brilliant," said the boy coldly. Alexia was curious to see how this turned out.

"Do you?" said Draco with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"

"They're dead," said the boy shortly.

"Oh, sorry," said Draco, not seeming apologetic at all in comparison to his response about Alexia's father. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"

"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean." The boy really was clueless.

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?" Draco asked. Alexia had to bite her tongue to avoid chastising Draco in the middle of the shop.

Luckily, Madam Malkin finished with the boy before he could answer.

"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said Draco sullenly.

Alexia gave Draco a hard look as the boy walked off and she stepped up on the stool left unoccupied.

"We can't just go around shouting about who has blood which is worthy," Alexia hissed at him quietly. Draco looked taken aback at her anger. Who was she to dictate his life?

"Mind your own business, Rosier," he spat. "How about you go back to being a know-it-all about charms instead of what I say to other people?"

She had to admit, she was a 'know-it-all' about charms, but Draco just didn't seem to understand. The standing of the Malfoy family was of great importance to all of them. Lucius had managed to pull them back into the Ministry's graces with his work, and Draco was going to go and ruin it just by letting his mouth run away with him. She paid no attention to Madam Malkin's tape measure taking her measurements by itself and instead stewed over Draco's idiocy.

Once she'd received new school robes (already with the Slytherin green – Draco sulked over having the plain black robes) and some well-fitting robes for weekends, they headed to meet Narcissa at Ollivander's. Draco was once again acting like an excited child, but Alexia just rolled her eyes and let him carry on. She stood in the corner of the shop, bored once Ollivander recognised her and repeated the characteristics of the wand that she'd received only a year before. However, they weren't in there for long – it seemed that Ollivander knew exactly the kind of wand that would suit a Malfoy. It was the first wand he picked out – 10", hawthorn and unicorn hair, reasonably pliant. When Alexia mentioned that her wand was longer than his, he seemed very upset, especially after Ollivander mentioned that in general, the longer the wand, the larger the personality of the wizard.

After that, Lucius found them again outside the apothecary and they bought Draco's new potions kit (having to convince him that yes, he could only have a pewter cauldron, not a silver one) and restocked Alexia's supplies. Really, Alexia was just excited to get to the owl emporium.

As soon as they went to the window, Alexia knew which owl she wanted. Sat there watching people walk down the street was a fairly large owl with jet black feathers. Her and Draco stood with their noses practically against the window as Lucius went inside to enquire about it. She almost (very uncharacteristically) squealed as they put the owl into a new cage and Lucius emerged with it a minute later, telling Narcissa all about the owl's speed and carrying strength. Alexia reached into the cage and Draco watched as the owl nibbled her finger affectionately.


End file.
